Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

108 results found

Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey

(Encyclopedia)Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey mûrˈkĭsən [key], 1792–1871, British geologist. He served in the Napoleonic Wars but after the peace turned his attention to science. In the 1830s he undertook the i...

Logan, Sir William Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Logan, Sir William Edmond, 1798–1875, Canadian geologist. Educated in England, he managed (1831–38) coal mines and a copper smelter in Wales. In addition to making studies of clays underlying coal...

King, Clarence

(Encyclopedia)King, Clarence, 1842–1901, American geologist, b. Newport, R.I., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1862. After serving as a volunteer assistant in the California state geological survey (1863...

Lyell, Sir Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lyell, Sir Charles līˈəl [key], 1797–1875, British geologist. After studying and briefly practicing law, he spent most of his life in travel and in popularizing scientific ideas. He championed an...

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

(Encyclopedia)South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, at Rapid City; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1887 as Dakota School of Mines, renamed 1943. Of note are an engineering and mining e...

era

(Encyclopedia)era, period of historic time. In geology, it is the name applied to large divisions of geological process, e.g., Paleozoic era (see geology). In chronology an era is a period reckoned from a fixed poi...

varve

(Encyclopedia)varve, in geology, pair of thin sedimentary layers formed annually by seasonal climatic changes. Usually found in glacial lake deposits, varves consist of a coarse-grained, light-colored summer deposi...

Utah, University of

(Encyclopedia)Utah, University of, at Salt Lake City; coeducational; state supported; opened 1850, chartered 1851 as Univ. of Deseret, closed 1851–67. It was empowered to give degrees in 1884 and renamed in 1892....

paleontology

(Encyclopedia)paleontology pāˌlēəntŏlˈəjē [key] [Gr.,= study of early beings], science of the life of past geologic periods based on fossil remains. Knowledge of the existence of fossils dates back at least...

Dhanbad

(Encyclopedia)Dhanbad dänˈbäd [key], city, Jharkand state, E central India. On the Damodar River and adj...